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Talk:Girl Meets STEM/@comment-26999065-20160117090619/@comment-26999065-20160117195356
There is no evidence of what you’re saying, Annabeth and Percy. As far as we can tell, one’s sexual orientation is not a choice. It’s an inherent drive built into each of us by millions of years of evolution. But just like DNA not being a perfect copying mechanism 100% of the time, wiring the brain up for sexual orientation doesn’t always ensure heterosexuality 100% of the time. The flow of the mother’s hormones in the uterus (differences of which may be due to stress or other environmental factors) can take a developing fetus off track and wire them up for same gender preference, or, on the continuum of sexual orientation, preference for both genders to varying degrees. This is not a choice. It’s a realization. Even twins with the same DNA may be bathed in different levels of hormones within the same uterus, making one heterosexual and the other homosexual – showing us sexual orientation is not inherent in the DNA. But it does seem to be determined before birth. Acting on whom you are sexually attracted to, however, is a choice. One could abstain from all sexual behavior if they really wanted to, or at least try, but our biological urges are often too hard to ignore. Bisexuals, at least, though they have no choice about being attracted to both genders, could, if they wished, abstain from one and just choose to act on their attraction for the other – and that way still have a satisfying sex life. But why should they abstain if they don’t want to? But the choice to act or not is NOT the choice of sexual orientation. Sexual orientation is inherent. For those who claim same sex attraction is a choice, I do not think they mean you can choose to ignore the attraction and abstain from all sex. I think they mean you can choose to be attracted to members of either gender if you just want to and then act on that (probably also implying you "should" choose the opposite gender since that's what they want you to choose). This has not been my experience as a heterosexual. I can’t just choose to be attracted to men. I’m not. The very idea is, in fact, a little disturbing to me, so while I don’t mind if a couple of guys want to do it in the privacy of their own home, I don’t wish to see it or really know about the details. If homosexual male characters on T.V. are doing it, I don’t really enjoy it, but tolerate it – not because they are doing anything wrong, but because it turns me off. Lesbians, OTOH, well, that doesn't bother me at all, but why should it? I'm attracted to women, and that shows two of them, so what's not to like? How heterosexual women feel about that, you'll have to ask them. Anyway, I cannot, therefore, just choose my sexual orientation, and I don’t think others can, either. To act or not act, yes, one could choose that, but that’s not much of a choice – to have no sex life – and I certainly don’t think it’s fair to curtail one’s sexual consensual adult expressions just because some people find it offensive, or contrary to their religious beliefs, or whatever. It’s not really any of their business. So asking them to choose to have no sex life at all is unfair and unrealistic just to make the homophobic more comfortable. That is not a real choice, and nobody should be asked to make it.